Desná Dam

The Desná Dam (locally known as the Burst Dam) was a dam constructed on the Bílá Desná river in the Jizera Mountains, which are in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It is known for bursting on September 18, 1916, ten months after it was built, which caused the river to flood the nearby town of Desná, killing 67 people and causing hundreds of others to lose their homes.[1][2][3]

Desná Dam
Desná Dam shortly after collapsing.
CountryAustria-Hungary (while operational)
Czech Republic (present day)
LocationJizera Mountains
Coordinates50.8009°N 15.2770°E / 50.8009; 15.2770
StatusDestroyed (1916)
Construction began1911
Opening date1915

The dam was constructed over a five-year period and was given final approval on November 18, 1915.[2] On September 18 the next year, at around 3:30pm, log workers noticed the first evidence of water leaking through the dam. The dam keeper ordered the reservoir to be drained, but the flow rate continued to increase. At 4:00pm, inhabitants of Desná were warned, and at 4:15pm, the dam burst with 250,000 cubic meters of water inside, which swept through the town.[4][5] The number of fatalities was originally considered to be 62, though in 2016, researcher Dana Nývltová found that court documents from the time showed 65 victims, and that 2 additional victims died later in hospital.[3]

Aftermath

Ing. Karel Podhajský, the senior state supervisor of the dam's construction, committed suicide upon hearing of the dam bursting.[2][1] In 1925, three other men who had led the dam's construction (Wilhelm Riedel, Ing. August Klamt and Ing. Emil Gebauer) were sentenced to prison, though they were later pardoned in 1929 by President Tomáš Masaryk.[6] A court in 1932 acquitted those who had worked on the dam of all charges, and stated that the cause of the collapse was a geological instability that was too deep to detect during construction.[6][1] A 1996 study by SG Geotechnika a.s. found that the absence of a sufficient geotechnical survey resulted in errors in the project, specifically not taking into account the great strength of the compressible layers below the dam body and their unacceptable permeability, and the excessively large hydraulic gradient of the water.[6][7]

The ruins of the dam are currently a Czech Republic cultural monument and a European Union Special Area of Conservation.[5][1] A plaque commemorating the tragedy's victims sits at the site.[8]

  • Dam under construction in 1914.
    Dam under construction in 1914.
  • Damage in Desná (Dessendorf).
    Damage in Desná (Dessendorf).
  • Ruins of the dam in 2009.
    Ruins of the dam in 2009.
  • Plaque commemorating the victims.
    Plaque commemorating the victims.

References
  1. Prima, FTV (September 16, 2022). "Před 106 lety se protrhla přehrada Desná, zemřelo 65 lidí" [106 years ago the Desná dam burst, 65 people died]. Prima Zoom (in Czech). Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  2. "Požehnání i minuta ticha. Protržená přehrada před sto lety zabíjela" [A blessing and a minute of silence. The breached dam killed one hundred years ago]. iDNES.cz (in Czech). September 18, 2016. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  3. "Obětí tragédie bylo o pět více, odhaluje nová kniha o Protržené přehradě" [There were five more victims of the tragedy, reveals a new book about the Burst Dam]. iDNES.cz (in Czech). July 11, 2016. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  4. Raška, Pavel; Emmer, Adam (2014). "The 1916 catastrophic flood following the Bílá Desná dam failure: The role of historical data sources in the reconstruction of its geomorphologic and landscape effects". Geomorphology. Elsevier BV. 226: 135–147. Bibcode:2014Geomo.226..135R. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2014.08.002. ISSN 0169-555X.
  5. "Protržená Přehrada - Dam that burst open - Engineering monuments - Desna". Český ráj. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  6. "Historie přehradního stavitelství v povodí horní Jizery" [History of dam building in the waters of the northern Jizera] (PDF). Povodí Labe. October 1, 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 20, 2022. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  7. Rozsypal, Alexandr (June 10, 2007). "Proč se před 90 lety protrhla přehrada na Bílé Desné?" [Why did the dam on the Bílá Desná burst 90 years ago?]. krkonose.krnap.cz. Archived from the original on December 16, 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  8. "Pomník obětem Protržené přehrady, Desná" [Memorial to the casualties in the Burst Dam, Desná]. Jizerské hory (in Czech). Retrieved May 14, 2023.
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